Action-Adventure The 'Back To The Future' Appreciation Thread - Part 2

[jmc]

Yeah, BTTF is being taken to their graves. We're never getting a reboot or a remake and I for one couldn't be happier.

 

[Gabe99]

Eric Stoltz ‘Back to The Future’ Footage Might Be Released

According to the film’s co-writer, Bob Gale, there’s a chance more of the Eric Stoltz Back to the Future footage will see the light of day.

I’m not going to say never. We did not destroy the footage, because we expect that sometime, in some future anniversary, we may let it get out there. They may see it sometime. I’m not going to say for sure, much less when. But I will say that we had the opportunity to completely destroy it. And we did not. So, it does exist in a vault somewhere.

Most double-dip Blu-ray sets aren’t worth buying, but if the special features on another Back to the Future boxset include more of the original actor’s performance, it’ll be worth the purchase. Gale also had this to say about Stoltz’s serious take on Marty McFly:

I have seen all of the Eric Stoltz footage, and we would not be having this conversation! The movie would have been released. But it would not have caught on the way it did. I don’t think it would have been successful enough to make two sequels.

 

[Slushy]

 

[BlueLightning]

The newspapers do, but the photos of Marty's family in Part I and Doc's Tombstone in Part III do change without them looking at it.

Well, to be fair, they only checked the newspapers after a significant action had taken place.

 

[Golgo-13]

Eric Stoltz ‘Back to The Future’ Footage Might Be Released

I remember an interview with the actor who plays Biff (can't think of his name at the moment) and him stating that Stoltz was a real A-hole on set, and a lot of the other cast members felt the same.

 

[chamber-music]

Frank Turner did a pretty cool Power of Love cover on BTTF Day. Video is on youtube

 

[Vartha]

Nabbed a newspaper today, looks neat along side my TDK Gotham Times.

I'm wanting to put Mine in a display frame. I even kept the Receipt for the 30th Anniversary Bluray set I got yesterday and put it with it. lol

 

[LostSon88]

I remember an interview with the actor who plays Biff (can't think of his name at the moment) and him stating that Stoltz was a real A-hole on set, and a lot of the other cast members felt the same.

From what I understood and read, the guy takes his craft wayyyyy too seriously to the point of pretentiousness. Tom Wilson (Biff) once talked about shooting the scene in the cafeteria when he shoves Marty how they had to do multiple takes and each time Stoltz was shoving him even harder to the point that Wilson was real close to losing his cool and punching him.

He just went at the role in a way that I'm sure Gale and Zemekis didn't intend. Just way too intense of an actor for a sci-fi comedy.

 

[Gold Samurai]

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Forward to 1:30

I thought it was interesting Fox averted saying Erc Stolz name.


"There was another actor who did like 9 weeks on the movie"

 

[sueb1863]

I think if they'd stuck with Stoltz it would have come off as being much more dramatic than the writers intended, more of a drama with some comedic elements. Fox was able to make it a comedy with some dramatic touches when needed, such as Marty figuring out how to deal with Doc's impending death.

 

[Gold Samurai]

From what I understood and read, the guy takes his craft wayyyyy too seriously to the point of pretentiousness. Tom Wilson (Biff) once talked about shooting the scene in the cafeteria when he shoves Marty how they had to do multiple takes and each time Stoltz was shoving him even harder to the point that Wilson was real close to losing his cool and punching him.

He just went at the role in a way that I'm sure Gale and Zemekis didn't intend. Just way too intense of an actor for a sci-fi comedy.

I could see that he wanted to get a REAL reaction out of Tom Wilson. Lots of actors do that to make it seem more authentic.

This really wasn't that kind of movie.

 

[Lencho01]

[YT]cgb3zk-5m4w[/YT]

Forward to 1:30

I thought it was interesting Fox averted saying Erc Stolz name.


"There was another actor who did like 9 weeks on the movie"

Fox said Stolz's name on Kimmel and said he was a good actor.

 

[DyeLorean]

Everybody on the production seem to agree that Stoltz wasn't a bad actor (although sometimes difficult to work with), he just wasn't getting the comedy aspect of the film, which is ultimately an important, crucial factor, specially with BTTF.

 

[Octoberist]

AT the time, he just came off from MASK, so he was more in a 'method actor' mode. Even with a comedy like 'Some Kind of Wonderful' (again with Lea Thompson) played a passive, somber character.

 

[Octoberist]

What I don't understand is that Eric's version of Marty wore all black, no vest, just a black jacket. More liken to The Cure.

So when Zemeckis decided to change the wardrobe for Fox, was the life preserver joke improvised, or just added to the script at the last minute?

 

[Dark Raven]

Maybe they were clothes that MJF would've worn himself. I can imagine there could have been some improvisation though.

 

[jmc]

There's been a couple of clips of Stolz released over the years and the noticeable thing was just how unfunny the film looked with him in it.

 

[DyeLorean]

What I don't understand is that Eric's version of Marty wore all black, no vest, just a black jacket. More liken to The Cure.

So when Zemeckis decided to change the wardrobe for Fox, was the life preserver joke improvised, or just added to the script at the last minute?

I know the joke was added when Fox came to start the film again. They realized that Eric's clothes didn't cause anything during the 50's because it looked like something they could wear at the time. Although there must have been some joke or reference with his t-shirt.

 

[dark_b]

wasnt this movie changed durring production? i always had a feeling like they changed their mind and made it more funny after casting. so thats why they cast Stolz and replaced him with Fox.

some act like Stolz signed on a scifi comedy movie and then wanted to be in a drama.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Fox was who they initially wanted, but he was busy at the time.

 

[Dark Raven]

Yeah he was doing Family Ties. Fox was their first choice though. They decided they would pursue him again even if it meant costing them and writing off several weeks of shooting. They felt that Fox had a personality more like McFly whereas Stoltz was just acting the part and doing a more dramatic take. So I think they wanted it more like Fox's interpretation to start with.

 

[Lencho01]

'Back to the Future's' Thomas Wilson: Biff Was a Reflection of the Bullies Who Tormented Me

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[dark_b]

Yeah he was doing Family Ties. Fox was their first choice though. They decided they would pursue him again even if it meant costing them and writing off several weeks of shooting. They felt that Fox had a personality more like McFly whereas Stoltz was just acting the part and doing a more dramatic take. So I think they wanted it more like Fox's interpretation to start with.

thats the story that they tell .but why if they wanted Fox they got Stolz who was so different? i think there is a small chance that they just changed their mind with Stolz and years later they decided to tell the story like they wanted Fox from the beginning.

the footag ewith Stolz also looks like it has a darker lighting to give the movie a different feel.

 

[danoyse]

If you’ve ever watched Family Ties, you can see why they wanted Fox so badly. He just had insane comic timing, and I still don’t think anyone does hysterical panic funnier than he does. He was cast to play one of the kids on the show, and he just ran away with the whole thing.

And...if you’ve never seen it, Crispin Glover was on Family Ties as well, pre-BTTF. He played one of Alex’s friends in the earlier seasons.

Here they are in the episode where Alex turned 18, and he snuck off with some friends to a bar in West Virginia where the drinking age was lower:

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One of my favorite Alex moments happened later in that episode, when his mom explained that she wasn’t just upset that he’d snuck off, but that he knew that they had a party planned for him and she was really hurt that he blew them off (Alex had been a little brat for the whole first half of the episode).

He tried to apologize by saying, “I think of you as my mother, not as a person...”

 

[Dark Raven]

Family Ties was initially meant to focus more on the parents, but Michael J Fox really became the breakout star of the show.

And as for why they cast Stoltz. Well, since they didn't get Fox at first, they had to make do with what they had and maybe tried to adapt some of it to suit his style, just as it happens these days when a director or studio don't get the star they actually wanted in the first place. It becomes a different take to play to that person's strengths. But I guess Zemekis still wanted to do his original vision of the film and that's why he felt Stoltz simply wasn't working as he had conceived of Marty McFly.

I remember that episode with Crispin Glover.